The bodily fluid from a patient, for example blood, is usually withdrawn from a patient and stored in either a vacuum tube or a blood culture collection bottle. To collect blood into a vacuum tube, conventionally a Vacutainer holder into which a vacuum tube may be inserted is used. In particular, a double-ended needle is threadingly mated to the Vacutainer holder, the patient is pricked with the end of the needle that extends from the Vacutainer holder, after which a vacuum tube is inserted to the Vacutainer holder so that its closure rubber stopper is pierced by the other of the double-ended needle. Blood from the vein of the patient then flows into and is collected within the vacuum tube. In the instance where the blood of the patient is to be collected in a blood culture collection bottle, an intravenous needle is inserted to the vein of the patient after it is connected to a holder to which the blood culture bottle may be mated. Examples of such holders are given in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,344,417 and 5,374,264. Such holders prevent potential accidental needle pricks by the contaminated needles to the user.
The prior art also discloses the use of a collection device for transferring bodily fluids to a blood specimen tube and a blood collection bottle. Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,423 teaches the use of a cap that covers the open end of a collection cup, with a smaller central opening provided at the center of the cap through which a blood collection tube may be inserted. The problem of the '425 prior art device is that the only thing that guides the insertion of the tube to the collection cup is the circumferential lip of the central opening of the cap through which the vacuum tube passes. As a consequence, the insertion of the blood collection tube to the collection cup may be off axially, resulting in the rubber stopper that covers the blood collection tube being pierced at an off-centered location. Moreover, there is nothing to support the portion of the blood collection tube that has passed through the central opening of the cap, before the rubber stopper is pierced by the cannula inside the collection cup.